Royal cover-up? No sign of a bald patch on Prince Charles's 60th birthday coin

Hair apparent: The new coin to mark Prince Charles's 60th birthday shows him with a full head of hair

There's a tradition that royal portraits should flatter their subject.

Which is why, presumably, a gold coin to mark Prince Charles's 60th birthday shows him with a full and flowing head of hair.

The Prince has, of course, had to put up with thinning hair since his youth.

But there is little evidence of this on the £5 coin which marks his birthday in November and gives him a Boris Johnson-style head of hair.

The otherwise realistic likeness was created by sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley who was granted two private sittings with the Prince at Highgrove, his country home, where he took sketches to create a plaster model.

He described it as an 'exciting' brief and said it was a 'privilege' to work on.

The coin is particularly unusual in that while it shows Charles on the tails side of the coin along with his date of birth - 1948 - and the Prince of Wales's motto Ich Dien, I Serve, it features his mother, the Queen, on the front.

Thatch more like it: In reality, the heir to the throne is thinning on top, but the new coin to mark his 60th birthday shows him with a Boris Johnson-style head of hair

This makes it only the seventh British coin issued in the past 300 years to feature two living members of the royal family.

Dave Knight, Director of Marketing at the Royal Mint, said: 'We are delighted to be celebrating HRH The Prince of Wales's 60th birthday with this special gold proof coin.

'The beautifully designed coin is particularly unusual as it features two royal portraits, one on each side, which is rare in coin design.'

The Princes of Wales £5 coin is available in 22 carat gold at £925 and in silver priced at £39.95.